Local author Jean Ardell has been teaching memoir writing courses for 20 years in places such as the University of California Extension at Irvine, the Blue Ribbon Schools Foundation, and the Newport Beach Public Library Foundation. Jean has come to understand that there is no ordinary life and she believes that each of us has the power to bear witness to what it has taken to survive into adulthood, to struggle towards authenticity, and to record the dramas of our lives.